Ashes
by Rockport268
Summary: Cosmo drinks his sorrows away after Kathy discovers that he and Don are more than just friends.


_Prompt: Ash_

Cosmo Brown stared sullenly at the glass in front of him. It was his second highball of the night, and it wasn't at all close to being his last. If the bartender wanted him out of that bar that night, they'd have to carry him out. He wasn't leaving until the sun was too bright, his mouth was too dry, his head was pounding, and he was still maybe a little bit drunk.

The ashes of his life piled around his mind. His job, his music, his friendships, all burnt to nothing. He'd have to change his name, move to a different state, and live out the rest of his life alone in obscurity. The only saving grace would be if Don could come out the other end of this unscathed-which shouldn't be a problem, if Cosmo took all the blame.

The bartender took his glass away and replaced it with another. Cosmo wasn't sure if he'd asked for it or not. It didn't matter; sooner or later, he would have, anyway. He raised the glass to, well, nobody, and said, "Bottoms up," and took one too many gulps.

The day had started out nice and normal. Cosmo had woken up to find himself at Don's house, which wasn't anything out of the ordinary. (Waking up on the couch rather than in the guest bed was a little unusual, but that was only because he'd spent the evening before banging around on the piano.) He'd then gone along with Don to the studio, where they met Kathy (who, as the pinnacle of respectability, never allowed herself to be seen staying the night at her paramore's home...more than two or three times a week, that is). There, they'd gone their separate ways, Don to play leading man, Kathy to play leading lady, and Cosmo to play the conductor's baton. They'd met for lunch, then went off again for a while, and then Don and Cosmo had headed home while Kathy stayed behind to finish filming for the day.

_"I never see you anymore," Cosmo had said lightheartedly as Don had started poking around the kitchen in search of the evening meal._

_Don laughed. "I see you every day!"_

_Cosmo pouted and sat down at the piano. "But it's never just the two of us." He struck a minor chord on the piano. Sad. "Ever since that Seldon girl's started coming around," another chord, "I never get you all to myself." Two more chords_

The thing was, Cosmo didn't even dislike Kathy. Not even a little. In fact, he loved her. He loved having her around, he loved hearing her pretty voice around the house at all hours of the day, and he even loved having to share Don with her. The only thing he _didn't_ like was how his relationship with Don had to change with her around, but that wasn't her fault. That was just how things were.

_"Well, how's this?" Don had asked, and then suddenly he was there next to him on the piano bench, lips meeting his, sparks flying._ _ The only reason Cosmo didn't go all starry-eyed and fall off the bench like the fellows in the cartoons was because that was a hardwood floor down there, and it and the bench was awfully high._

_And when they'd finished kissing at the piano, they'd moved to neck on the couch. Just when Cosmo was starting to think about moving to the kitchen, the front door had opened._

_Neither of them had reacted quickly enough._

Cosmo took another swig of his highball. Despite the vague nausea in his gut-or perhaps because of it-he needed it.

_Cosmo had barely registered Kathy's surprised and surely-horrified "Oh!" before detangling himself from Don. "I-I'm really sorry, Don. I shouldn't have done that," he said. "I misunderstood, and-"_

_"Now, Cosmo-"_

_"Don't worry. I'll get out of your hair. You don't have to worry about seeing me again." He'd kept his eyes down towards the floor as he retrieved his hat and coat and nearly bolted out the door._

_"Cosmo! Wait!" Don had called after him, but Cosmo wasn't about to let his friend incriminate himself in any illicit activities._

And that had been that.

Cosmo's life had burned to ashes right before his very eyes.

And the sad part was that it _still_ could have been worse. Much worse.

Cosmo took another swig of the highball that clearly wasn't doing its job and realized that his cheeks were damp. He furiously wiped them dry, feeling the material of his sleeve chafe against his skin.

Before he could bring the glass back to his lips, Cosmo heard an all-too familiar voice.

_"There_ you are!"

Cosmo blearily looked up just in time to see Don pull up short, the elated relief on his face fading into a sort of stricken sadness that reminded Cosmo of the night they'd met Kathy, only worse.

"Yep. Here I am." He picked the glass back up and took a few swigs until Don took it away.

"I'm taking you home."

"Be careful; the paparazzi might see," Cosmo said, unable to mask his scowl.

"Now don't start." Don hauled Cosmo to his feet, and the ground lurched. Don tightened his grip on Cosmo's shoulder, and they headed out of the speakeasy. The cool California winter night air felt good on Cosmo's face as they walked out into the night.

"How is he?" he heard Kathy say. Even in the state he was in, he could hear the worry in her voice.

"The gang's all here!" Cosmo said, throwing an arm around her. "Say, Kathy, how much do you hate me now that you know my deep, dark secret?"

"Hush!" Kathy said, bring up a hand to cover his mouth.

Don nodded towards the car. "Let's get him home before he ruins your upholstery."

"Now why would I do a thing like that?"

Don wrestled him into Kathy's convertible and squeezed in next to him. It was nice, being sandwiched between the two like that, like the bologna sandwiches that always used to find their way to the bottom of his rucksack. Kathy's perfume flowed through one nostril and Don's aftershave through the other.

"Save your breath, Kathy, he's not going to hear a word you say until tomorrow noon. At _least."_

Only then did Cosmo realize that Kathy had been saying...something. A small part of him felt bad, because he really did care about Kathy a great deal, and ignoring her was very rude, but the prevailing part of him really just wanted to crawl into bed and go to sleep.

They pulled into the driveway and Cosmo lifted his head, squinted at the building they were parked in front of, and said, "Hey, this isn't my house."

"Yes, it is," Don said. "Now get inside."

"Don't want the neighbors to see me?"

"They aren't going to see you as long as you don't wake them up!" Kathy didn't get exasperated too easily, but boy, it was cute when she did. Cosmo told her so.

"Just get inside!" Don said, shoving him towards the front door. If he hadn't also been holding tight to his arm, Cosmo would have fallen flat on his face.

The next thing he knew, Cosmo was being pushed into the house and wrestled up the stairs, where he very, very gratefully fell into bed.

* * *

When Cosmo woke up, he found that the room was too dark, his mouth was too dry, the bed was too soft, his head was pounding, and he was definitely _not_ drunk, not even a little bit.

Very carefully, he cracked his eyes open and glanced around. He noticed two things: one, that the curtains were drawn tightly enough that he couldn't tell what time of day (or night) it was, and two, there was a glass of water and a plate holding a couple of aspirins and some saltines on the bedside table. Then he noticed something else, which was that he was not in his bed at his apartment and was, in fact, in Don's bed at Don's house.

Cosmo shut his eyes again, but there was no way he was falling back asleep with the blacksmith in his skull pounding away on what had to be a rush order. He took a deep breath and pushed himself up, attended to the items on the night table, and set about getting ready for the day. It took longer than usual, as it always did on mornings like this. He knew better than to turn any of the lights on, which helped a great deal. Or, rather, it kept anything from getting much worse.

Once Cosmo was finally dressed and cleaned up as much as he was going to be until much, _much_ later, he ventured downstairs.

The curtains were drawn down there, too. Don and Kathy were sitting on the piano bench, the keys covered, speaking to one another in hushed tones. Even with Cosmo's hangover-enhanced hearing, he couldn't make out what they were saying. They stopped once they noticed him coming down the stairs.

Cosmo waved them off. "Don't mind me; I'm just leaving."

"You'll do no such thing," Don said.

Kathy disappeared into the kitchen.

"And why not?" Cosmo demanded. "Look, you and I both know that I've gotta go. There's no sense in delaying it."

"You're not going anywhere, Cosmo."

"Like hell I'm not!"

"Here." Kathy was behind him with a glass of water.

"Thank you," Cosmo said. He took a sip and grimaced.

Don put an arm around Cosmo's shoulders. "Sit down and we'll talk about it."

"What's there to talk about? I'm a pervert, and the best thing for me to do is skip town." But Cosmo let himself be led to the couch all the same.

"Don told me," Kathy said. "Everything."

Cosmo turned to glare at Don. "Now what'd you go ahead and do a thing like that for?"

"It's ok. Really," Kathy said. She was wringing her hands in her lap. "It's just-"

"Yeah, I know," Cosmo said. "He's your man now, so I've gotta back off." He looked at her earnestly. "I really am sorry, Kathy. It won't ever happen again."

"No, that's not it," Kathy said, eyes cast downward.

"Kathy-"

"I know that you and Don go back a long time, and I-I respect that. I really do. And I've already told Don I don't want a lavender marriage, and he doesn't want that, either, but we talked about it, and we thought-I hoped-" Kathy took a deep breath and looked Cosmo in the eye. "Why can't it be the three of us?"

Cosmo blinked at her. "What?"

"Why can't-that is, if you'll have me-"

"What Kathy's trying to say is that there's no reason that a relationship can't be more than two people, and we'd like you to be our third."

Cosmo looked from Don to Kathy and from Kathy to Don, waiting for the punchline. But it didn't come. Their faces were earnest and hopeful, and maybe also a little scared.

In spite of himself, tears came to Cosmo's eyes. He'd never even dared to give space to the _thought_ that anything like this could be possible.

"Do you really mean it?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"'Mean it?'" Don said. "Of course we mean it. Do you really think we'd joke about a thing like that?"

Kathy put a hand around Cosmo's arm. "Please?"

Tears began pouring out of Cosmo's eyes. "Now you've done it," he said, wiping them, but he was smiling.

"Oh, _stop,"_ Kathy said with a teary laugh, and Cosmo could have sworn Don's eyes looked a little watery.

Cosmo laughed and gestured to himself. "Are you sure you still want me after that stunt I pulled last night?"

"Of course," Don said.

"I know you do," Cosmo said dismissively. "I'm asking Kathy."

"Always," said Kathy.

And for the first time in quite a while, Cosmo was perfectly, utterly, and completely happy.


End file.
